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David Smilde, curator of the blog, is a WOLA Senior Fellow and the Charles A. and Leo M. Favrot Professor of Human Relations at Tulane University. He has lived in or worked on Venezuela since 1992. He is co-editor of Venezuela's Bolivarian Democracy: Participation, Politics and Culture under Chávez (Duke 2011).

Geoff Ramsey is WOLA’s Associate for Venezuela. He is an avid observer of the situation in Venezuela—having helped coordinate WOLA’s response to and coverage of the December 2015 legislative elections from Caracas—as well as a regular contributor to WOLA’s Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights blog.

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AN Resolution Urges Government Measures against Venezuela’s Autonomous Universities

November 6, 2015

David Smilde and Hugo Pérez Hernáiz

On November 3 the pro-government (PSUV) majority of the National Assembly approved a resolution formally requesting the government “create a commission of legal experts” in order to file suit against university professors “for damages to the Venezuelan state” (The resolution has not been published but a draft can be read here). It also calls for an audit of the autonomous universities’ use of state resources, including salaries for faculty and employees who are on strike.

The PSUV deputies also accused the professors of being part of a wider conspiracy against the government by “generating insubordination.” The agreement suggests that the strike is part of an opposition strategy, in cahoots with “foreign private universities,” so that students affected by the strike will feel pressured into leaving the country to study abroad.

Venezuela’s autonomous universities remain almost completely empty since the beginning of the school year as the main faculty union went on strike over wages. In addition the leaders of several public universities have stated that it would be impossible to start the school year because colleges have not received sufficient funds for basic operations.

The PSUV deputies argued in the floor debate that the professors have no reason to go on strike, because the government is making “extraordinary efforts” in order to provide universities with resources. The deputies say this is in spite “of the economic war and that financial blockade by international organisms against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

The national federation of professor’s unions FAPUV reacted to the Assembly’s agreement by asking the government not to fall into provocations and to continue the dialogue and negotiation process with the professors. FAPUV’s president Lourdes Ramírez suggested the National Assembly was covertly asking for an intervention of the universities by the government.

Ten of Venezuela’s universities are referred to as “autonomous” since they have far-reaching control over their curriculum, their finances, and the selection of university authorities. Since the 19th Century Venezuela’s universities have been a main site of the struggle against authoritarian governments and university autonomy has been a main issue in that struggle.

During the Chávez period they have been one of the most important sources of government opposition. Since the 2007 attempt to reform the Constitution, the government has repeatedly tried to gain control of them. This desire was renewed by the fact that much of the 2014 cycle of protests was organized by student groups from the autonomous universities.